Spring 2021 at San José State Transforming Silicon Valley College Celebrates 75 years of History and Innovation Ingenious Design Remembering Data Detective Students Solve Pressure Charles Davidson Tech Professor Issues for Ventilator Producer Developer, Philanthropist, Collaborates Across Affordable Housing Activist Disciplines to Save Lives DE A N’ S M E S SAG E TA BLE OF C ON T E N TS In This Issue THIS SPRING, AS BLOSSOMS BLOOM College and Research News and leaves unfurl, our society is slowly 4 re-opening and emerging from the COVID pandemic. 5 Points for Prizes and Career- Preparedness Faculty, lecturers, staff and I are wrestling with big questions: what have we learned from 6 Student-Designed Satellites our pivot to mostly online teaching? What is Assist Scientists on the Ground worth keeping as we go forward to both hybrid and in-person teaching this fall? How will “Our wish is 7 From Flying 20 to Precision 10 engineering colleges look different as a result Flight, and Beyond! of this pandemic and its many, multilayered to continue 16 24 effects on our students, families and Better Every Year: The Bay Area community? What will the workplace be like changing lives 8 for our graduates and how can we help them Biomedical Device Conference to be ready? for the better.” 9 Advancing Concrete Knowledge We are both sober and grateful to present this celebratory issue marking 75 years as and Understanding the College of Engineering at San José State. We have been transforming student lives since 1946, and their success has in turn transformed their families. Furthermore, Students Whistle Up a Rapid our alumni have literally and digitally been transforming Silicon Valley into the 10 Improvement to Ventilator Project globally acknowledged powerhouse it is today. This issue features a timeline with highlights of our history. You can find more 12 Names May Change But the information and photos, many of which were contributed by our alumni, on our website Mission Remains Constant at https://www.sjsu.edu/engineering75. Please take a look. 20 How Machine Learning Helps 13 ‘General’ Becomes Prevent Accidents Our wish is to continue changing lives for the better, whether it be through the Interdisciplinary Engineering Davidson College of Engineering’s memorably empowering professors, by encouraging 21 From Student to Building our students’ networking with professionals at conferences, or by providing rich 14 New Master's Specialization in Safety Coordinator opportunities for our students to conduct research and contribute directly to Silicon Quantum Computing & Information Valley’s innovation ecosystem. 23 2021 National Engineers Week Here’s to the next 75 years! 15 Agile Programs for Silicon Student Video Contest Valley Professionals 24 Highlights of Our History Sincerely, 16 Supporting Supply Chains During the Pandemic 27 A Legacy Perpetuates Engineer’s Dean Sheryl Ehrman Contribution to His Community Don Beall Dean of Engineering, Championing Engineering Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering 18 at San José State University Students since 1991 28 Alumni Notes 19 SJSU’s Mechatronics Program 30 Events 2 Engineering @ San José State Spring 2021 Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering 75 YEARS 3 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH NEWS STUDENT NEWS NSF HONOR Points for Prizes and NEW LABS Hiu-Yung Wong, assistant professor AND EQUIPMENT of electrical engineering at Career-Preparedness San José State University, has received a Faculty Early Career Keysight Technologies has generously Development Program (CAREER) gifted the college the KT Mechatronics Students continue to award, a prestigious honor bestowed Lab and the KT Radio Frequency by the National Science Foundation. Equipment Station. grow with GO program HERE ARE FALL 2020’S The award supports his research TOP POINT EARNERS, of cryogenic electronics—electrical systems that operate at ALL OF WHOM extremely cold temperatures—as well as his project to expand Omron has generously supported education and research opportunities while building a diverse the College with a new Hornet robot, EXCEEDED 100 POINTS workforce in the field. Wong will receive about $500,000 a gantry-mounted device that can over five years to implement his project, “Understanding “see” items, reach for them, grab them Andrea Shteynberg and Modeling of Cryogenic Semiconductor Device Physics (with suction or grippers) and move Human Factors MS down to 4.2K them to another location. 130 THE DAVIDSON COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING GO Program Jumana Nadir encourages students to take an active role in preparing for their Software Engr MS engineering career. Current engineering students can earn points by participating in career-preparedness activities such as 150 Engineers often get stereotyped as focusing too much attending non-academic lectures, joining clubs or finessing their Alexander Shapiro MATHEMATICS LinkedIn profiles. They cash out their points for prizes, and there AND POETRY on the technical and not enough on the human aspect Computer Engineering ‘23 of problems. Mechanical Engineering Lecturer, Kedar is no limit to how many activities they can undertake. 155 Hardikar, breaks that stereotype with the publication of The program has quietly been countering what one student Akansha Jajodia his book, Abstract Intersections: A Poetic Journey Through referred to as “the go HOME program.” Dean Sheryl Ehrman Computer Engr MS Mathematics. The publication has earned him five-star began GO in 2017 when she saw that between studies, jobs, family reviews from international scholars and laypeople. care and commuting, students were not particularly aware of or 280 motivated to grab opportunities that were available to help them Charlie Nino better prepare for life after graduation. Mechanical Engr ‘23 FACULTY GRANTS Prizes like water bottles and t-shirts helped to popularize the GO 460 program, but even when campus shut down during the pandemic, Dawei Wang students continued to attend Zoom speaker events and participate • Anand Ramasubramanian, John Lee, and • Hongrui Liu, "Proposal to Test/Research Market in other activities that earned them school gift cards, customized Industrial & Systems Engr ‘21 Wendy Lee (Computer Science), "Thrombosis in Clearing Systems For ISO New England," ISO New business cards and, for students with more than 100 points, a A jaw-dropping 1,720 points! Microgravity," NASA, 2020-21 England, 2021 LinkedIn endorsement from the dean. • Vimal Viswanathan, "Collaborative Research: • Ron Mak, "Intelligent Systems Research and Since 2019, Computer Engineering senior project teams have been Empowering and Inspiring Confident, Development Support-3," NASA creating an app so students can track their own points and even Collaborative, and Creative Engineers through an compete with each other. Interim Computer Engineering Chair • Patricia Backer, "Grant Management for Pioneer Intelligent Tutoring System," NSF, 2021-24 Rod Fatoohi presented a paper about our seniors building the GO Pathways Project," CSU East Bay, 2020-21 Program app at the MIPRO 2020 conference. Once the app is fully • Ozgur Keles, "Scalable Ceramic Alignment functioning, the college plans to scale up the program. for Electro-Active Structures," Palo Alto Research Center, 2020-21 Errata: Melissa Pardo was an Aerospace Engineering major, not Mechanical Engineering as stated. The Spartan Racing team was one of 12 winning teams for the business presentation. It was their first win in business pesentation. 4 Engineering @ San José State Spring 2021 Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering 75 YEARS 5 FEATURE F E AT U R E Student-Designed Satellites From Flying 20 to Assist Scientists on the Ground Precision Flight, and Beyond! Initiative empowers four generations History of San José State’s plucky aviation clubs of Aerospace Engineering students THE FLYING 20 WAS ONE OF THE FIRST SJSU and 17th place overall in the 2018 NIFA Nationals. Engineering clubs, founded in 1936 by a group of flight In 2019 they won second place overall in the NIFA Regional THE TECHEDSAT IS A JOINT PROJECT OF enthusiasts, and a number of similar aviation clubs Competition, held in Prescott, Arizona. Aerospace students, faculty and alumni at SJSU followed in its wake. One of these clubs, the SJSU and NASA Ames. Costing about $50,000 to build, The Precision Flight team’s drive to compete hasn’ t let up Precision Flight Team, formed out of a difficult situation inexpensive by NASA standards, the satellites in this during a pandemic-- they have been practicing hard over for campus flight programs, and then took its reputation series have carried state-of-the-art technologies Zoom for the last 5 months, with the aim to compete in a to new heights. Now, this resilient and driven team is using that allow scientists on the ground to process regional competition without flying events this year. They technology to practice together even as the COVID-19 satellite data more efficiently. hope to go on to the Nationals in Oshkosh, Wisconsin pandemic keeps them apart. in May, once the NIFA makes a decision to host it with In 2013, Aerospace Engineering Professor Periklis On a foggy October night in 1960, a chartered plane measures in place for everyone’s safety. Team President Papadopoulos established an integrated space systems carrying the Cal Poly Mustang football team crashed on Barrett Conelly says of their club’s current unprecedented engineering curriculum, connecting his senior design takeoff in Toledo, Ohio, killing 22 of its passengers. This challenge, “Despite the separation,